Luke Gilligan's Article About His Work Experience with the Air Corps

I got the surprise of my life when I came home to find a letter addressed to me from the Irish Air Corps. Naturally the first thing that came to my head was “What did I do to get in trouble with these guys?” On opening the letter, I discovered that my application to do work experience with the Air Corps had been successful. Of course, I was thrilled. Day 1- Approaching the gates of Baldonnel Airfield, I was terrified. Not in anticipation or anything but rather a patrol troop carrying loaded guns across their chests had just marched past me. The work experience was held in the Technical Training School (where they train the engineers) for the most part. There we got a safety brief and were introduced to the soldiers accompanying us for the week. We then received a full tour of the base. It was fascinating to see all of the different areas of the base such as the armoury, the messes, the barracks, the runways and everything else you could imagine you need for the smooth running of a military base. After this, we received our first proper look at all the aircraft. We saw everything from monstrous Casa planes to the cosier Eurocopter 135s. After this it was time for lunch and then we were shown a DVD of training drills you have to do while trying to pass your cadetship, and like that our first day was over. The Casa Day 2- Today started with a more in depth talk about the helicopters in the Air Corps and their role. An engineer took us to the larger Agusta Westland 139 model and we were allowed in the cockpit and explore the interior as he told us about what the controls were for and how a helicopter works. He also gave us a talk about how a plane pilot can progress to become a helicopter pilot. We were then taken to the Air Corps museum where planes and artefacts from all the eras of the Air Corps were on display. We saw some amazing stuff like the engine of a Spitfire from the World War II era. Then it was on to some people’s favourite part of the week, the welding shop. We were told about the welder’s job and were given a demonstration during which the head welder made spiders out of ball bearings and bars. The Agusta Westland 139 Day 3- This was without a doubt my favourite day. To start off with we were taken to the air traffic control tower and given a talk on how to do their job and shown all the instruments. This was surprisingly interesting. We left them to it and went to the Bird Control Unit. They use birds of prey and recorded bird calls to drive birds away from the airfield. We were allowed to hold a hawk on our arm. After lunch, guns were taken to our classroom (no live ammunition of course) and we were shown how to strip and assemble them and all the mechanisms that make it fire. There was a Steyr rifle, a GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun), a HMG (Heavy Machine Gun) and a SRAAW (Short Range Anti-Armour Weapon) that fired rockets. During this we were taught about the rules of engagement. The Air Traffic Control Tower Day 4- This day kicked off with a visit to the cadet’s hangar where we were allowed fiddle around with a decommissioned Allouette helicopter and were shown how the trainee engineers are trained practically. We spent the rest of the day in the fitness centre learning about and doing the basic army fitness evaluation test. We all passed. It consists of doing twenty press ups in less than a minute and twenty sit ups in less than a minute. Then you have to run a mile and a half in eleven minutes and forty three seconds or less. After finishing the test we were taught the correct techniques for ascending and descending the ropes. The practical use for this is free-roping down from a helicopter. To finish it off we played soccer against each other. The Allouette Helicopter Day 5- This day was finished early. The first thing we did was go to the hangar for the PC-9M Turbo-Prop Plane that is used as a training plane and is the closest thing Ireland has to a fighter jet. You can fix rocket pods and machine guns under the wings. An engineer lectured us on the workings of the aircraft and also how the ejection seats work. We finished off the week in a flight simulator that simulated a PC-9M and we were allowed use it. Impressively, no one ended up crashing. The Flight Simulator It was an unforgettable experience and I highly doubt I’ll ever get a chance to do anything even close to that again in my life. I would highly recommend anyone looking for work experience or even a job to look towards the Air Corps because it is unique and offers the widest range of opportunities you can imagine. It quite simply is as it says on the advertisements “A Life Less Ordinary.” Me in a helicopter cockpit .

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